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Monday, December 18, 2017

From time to time, John Green, best selling author and one of the Vlogbrothers on YouTube, produces a video in which he talks about the good news that’s all around us, but which we may not see. It’s particularly good when he does one in December to help close out the old year, and to keep hope alive for the new year. The video above is one of those.

As far as I know (because I shared it here on this blog), the last time John did one of these in December was in 2013 (though he’s done some in other months since then). What I noticed about this one are a couple references to the awful side of social media, which has been particularly noticeable this year. Personally, I feel the same way he does, but, also like John, it doesn’t cancel out realisation that there is much good that is still going on in the world, no matter what it may sometimes look like.

It’s difficult to remain positive in the face of relentless bad news, such as when a particular person’s latest irrational and unhinged Tweet leads the news cycle yet again, or somebody else shoots masses of innocent people, or we see criminals and dictators getting away with their crimes.

It seems to me that it’s precisely because there’s so much bad that sometimes we need to be reminded of the good. How else are we ever going to rise above the awful if we don’t see that there are good reasons to be hopeful? Hope alone won’t help us defeat evil, of course, but it’s a pretty good place to start.

And I certainly hope that the new year is a better year than the one we’re leaving—basically the same thing I wish every year, actually. Videos like this help remind us that in some ways, at least, that wish is granted every year.